My system has been acting very strangely in that my Windows XP x64 load times have all of a sudden gotten much longer. Also, when I restart my computer from within Windows, the monitor will flicker and then turn off as if the system is off but the system actually stays on for at least another 5+ seconds before it actually restarts - I know this because the fans are still running at normal speed. This normally wouldnt bother me as much but once the fans finally stop for the reboot, there must be about a 3-4 second delay before the fans start back again when things begin POST. I know this all may sound trivial but the thing is when I first installed my Raptor hard drive about two months ago, after a quick few second POST, Windows x64 loading literally took almost no time and the loading bar only went by about 3/4ths of the way before it was already complete and I would be at the login menu. Now, the loading takes as long as it did when I had a POS 5 year old 40GB 5400rpm PATA hard drive (much longer). Now, once I finally get into Windows, everything loads up almost instantly and performs excellent like it should, including games. I have also ran various benchmarks to confirm my hard drive is performing as fast as it should. This is all of course an issue because not long ago it seems like the response time was much faster than it is now.
My BIOS is fairly customized in that I am overclocking my system, but the only settings I have really messed with are related to the RAM and CPU. I am running the latest version of my BIOS (1014). I have also tried setting everything back to the default settings but it does the same exact thing, in fact, the first time I tried to boot with setting everything back to default, it froze at the Windows loading screen but worked the next time.
Because I have just lived with this issue since everything seems to work fine when I actually get into Windows, I cant remember if this was going on before another issue that I am about to mention...
About a month ago, I got Arctic Silver Ceramique for my GPU and memory on the 7800GT. I took the video card out, removed its heatsink and applied the thermal compound - assembling everything else back just fine. Well, once I started my system back up, I discovered that my Raptor was not properly functioning. In fact, I think the entire drive got damaged somehow as it froze my system up when I ran a Western Digital Diagnostic check via bootable CD. I make a concerted effort to be very careful when handling the components inside my computer and I also wear a grounding strap but I guess somehow either the drive was about to die anyway and that just did it or I actually shocked it. Nevertheless, I RMAed the drive and got a new one, now my system works fine - I think. Now, I dont know if this is coincidental, but I am wondering if when the original Raptor got ruined, something else got dorked up as well?
I am very tempted to drive 30 minutes up to the Tiger Direct retail store tomorrow and pick up a DFI motherboard to see what happens. But, the thing is, everything within Windows, applications, games etc seem to be functioning just fine besides what I mentioned at the first of my post.
I would really appreciate any help, advice, or tips you can offer.
UPDATE: My Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0 just quit working although it looked like it was on with the light and everything. I tried resetting it - no dice; I unplugged the base station and then plugged it back in (USB) - no dice; I tried switching USB ports - no dice; so I plugged in another mouse which was a corded USB mouse and it worked. I then plugged in the wireless mouse to a laptop and it worked. Then, I plugged in the wireless mouse back into my computer and well what a surprise, it works. I am slowly coming to the paranoid conclusion that something is screwed up with my motherboard (A8N-SLI plain version). This ordeal has happened once before as well and I figured it was a fluke. One more reason why I am tempted to get that DFI...
My BIOS is fairly customized in that I am overclocking my system, but the only settings I have really messed with are related to the RAM and CPU. I am running the latest version of my BIOS (1014). I have also tried setting everything back to the default settings but it does the same exact thing, in fact, the first time I tried to boot with setting everything back to default, it froze at the Windows loading screen but worked the next time.
Because I have just lived with this issue since everything seems to work fine when I actually get into Windows, I cant remember if this was going on before another issue that I am about to mention...
About a month ago, I got Arctic Silver Ceramique for my GPU and memory on the 7800GT. I took the video card out, removed its heatsink and applied the thermal compound - assembling everything else back just fine. Well, once I started my system back up, I discovered that my Raptor was not properly functioning. In fact, I think the entire drive got damaged somehow as it froze my system up when I ran a Western Digital Diagnostic check via bootable CD. I make a concerted effort to be very careful when handling the components inside my computer and I also wear a grounding strap but I guess somehow either the drive was about to die anyway and that just did it or I actually shocked it. Nevertheless, I RMAed the drive and got a new one, now my system works fine - I think. Now, I dont know if this is coincidental, but I am wondering if when the original Raptor got ruined, something else got dorked up as well?
I am very tempted to drive 30 minutes up to the Tiger Direct retail store tomorrow and pick up a DFI motherboard to see what happens. But, the thing is, everything within Windows, applications, games etc seem to be functioning just fine besides what I mentioned at the first of my post.
I would really appreciate any help, advice, or tips you can offer.
UPDATE: My Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0 just quit working although it looked like it was on with the light and everything. I tried resetting it - no dice; I unplugged the base station and then plugged it back in (USB) - no dice; I tried switching USB ports - no dice; so I plugged in another mouse which was a corded USB mouse and it worked. I then plugged in the wireless mouse to a laptop and it worked. Then, I plugged in the wireless mouse back into my computer and well what a surprise, it works. I am slowly coming to the paranoid conclusion that something is screwed up with my motherboard (A8N-SLI plain version). This ordeal has happened once before as well and I figured it was a fluke. One more reason why I am tempted to get that DFI...
